8 Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “This is what the Lord of armies has said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 and do not oppress the widow or the [h]orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 But they refused to pay attention, and [i]turned a stubborn shoulder and [j]plugged their ears from hearing. 12 They also made their hearts as hard as a diamond [k]so that they could not hear the Law and the words which the Lord of armies had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of armies. 13 And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of armies; 14 “but I [l]scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was desolated behind them [m]so that no one went back and forth, since they made the pleasant land desolate.”
Footnotes
- Zechariah 7:2 Lit his
- Zechariah 7:2 Lit soften the face of
- Zechariah 7:3 Lit to fast
- Zechariah 7:5 Lit and this
- Zechariah 7:6 Lit is it not you who eat and you who drink
- Zechariah 7:7 I.e., South country
- Zechariah 7:7 Heb Shephelah
- Zechariah 7:10 Or fatherless
- Zechariah 7:11 Lit gave
- Zechariah 7:11 Lit made their ears heavy
- Zechariah 7:12 Lit from hearing
- Zechariah 7:14 Lit stormed them away upon all
- Zechariah 7:14 Lit from passing and from returning